Time Warner Macroblocking

http://s1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd407/FromTheKing/?action=view&current=3-1-12.jpg

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HGTV Locked up and Blacked out, again… This has become so commonplace that I’ll just post both videos here. You can see that this is quite common with this channel, and well with my cable service delivery by time warner.

I’ll let the videos speak for themselves.

Oddly, as I was sorting through and uploading all the videos on my phone, the DIY channekl started macroblocking like mad. I had to unplug the phone from the laptop to try and catch it, unfortunately the channel locked up completely before I could catch the macroblocking on the channel. but if you look closely you can see the channel that I flipped to with a bit of pause/macroblocking as I switched over to it.

Sometimes flipping back and forth frees up the channel and sometimes days go by while the channel is locked up tight.

Of course it is, one of the perpetual problem channels the DIY channel decided to lock up after a quick bit of severe macroblocking. A few flips back and forth gives a blacked out channel, then out of nowhere it just works again. Of course the macroblocking continued after it returned from the lockup, but I guess this is what passes as acceptable levels of service.

A new year, same problems.

Description of blacked out channel with no message or macroblocking.

So what can you do on your columbus day holiday? Watch a bit of television, including some Jeremy, James and Hammond, Thats right, the entire Top Gear Marathon on BBC was going to be my holiday indulgence, instead  macroblocking, cutting out, dropping audio and locking up of one of my favorite shows was what was in store for me. take a look at the quality service I am paying $125 a month for.

 

Theres not much else to do when the macroblocking starts like this. Call customer service? Nope, they make you unplug your box (thats got at least a 5 minute reboot time) and then when that doesn’t fix the issue they tell you to call back if it is still having problems after 24 hours. Of course you just can’t win.

great video of shoot em up locked up as well as other channel blackouts, dropped video and some macroblocking

On the same day

This is directly after a new set top box installation

So yeah, I was watching TV and every minute or so, the channel would cut out, then pop back again. Seemed random, every minute or so, during the show and commercials..

of course I just went through and started watching something else, but it was pretty annoying. Currently uploading a bunch of videos out of order because I was busy with other stuff to upload.

Here are some videos from Time Warner Cable customer “fromtheking”

Here are his videos

video of HGTV locked up initially then continuing on with macroblocking